Water Heater Gas Line Sediment Trap

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Water heater gas line sediment trap.

Sediment trap many locations require a sediment trap to be installed as close to the gas inlet as possible. Most water heaters do not have a sediment trap in them. Sediment traps sometimes mistakenly referred to as drip legs are designed to catch sediment in natural gas before it enters into the water heater or furnace gas valve. Sediment traps are intentionally installed to help prevent sediment in the gas piping from getting into the gas valve or burner area of an appliance and fouling things up.

Make sure you have the purge and drain valves on hand since they do not come with many water heaters. Sediment traps are used to well trap sediment from gas lines. Unlike a drip leg gravity alone will not separate the sediment from the gas stream. A sediment trap requires a hard turn that the gas can flow around but sediment can t much like a sharp turn in a fast moving go kart has the potential to fling you out of the driver s seat.

Aiming the gas flow straight down pushes anything caught in the gas line into the trap where it cannot enter the appliance gas chamber. The photo below shows 18. Connect the water heater connect the shutoff valve and the sediment trap to the water heater following the manufacturer s instructions. Wrong orientation of a gas line sediment trap at a gas water heater.

Therefore the gas appliance does not have any sediment entering the gas chamber. It sounds like a mouthful doesn t it. The job sounds more difficult than it really is and can be done in less than 5 minutes. T p valve the temperature and pressure relief valve is an important safety device which goes off when your tank exceeds 210 degrees fahrenheit or 150 psi.

Different areas have different contaminants in the gas and the traps help catch these. Wrong orientation of a gas line sediment trap at a gas water heater.